Touch of Fate

"I hardly think this is worth 8 gold, let alone 15. You see the stitching here? Its clearly second-rate work. I'm sure this thing would barely stand a hit before falling apart." Mike was saying while gesturing at suit of armor made from alchemically treated leather. Supposedly, it was much more durable than standard leather, while maintaining the same level of flexibility.

The stingy armor merchant was shaking his head, clearly becoming increasingly infuriated with his customer. "Fine! I'll give it to you for 12, and not a coin less!"

"Tell you what," Mike muttered to the merchant in a conspiratorial manner. "Make it 10 gold and I won't spread around that the 'Dragon Bone' breastplate you have over there is really only made of Thunder Lizard bones.

The merchant was speechless, mouth flapping soundlessly for a few seconds before his shoulders fell in resignation.

"You are pure evil." He said while pushing the stack of armor with disdain.

Mike dropped a stack of coins on the table and swept up his new purchase. "Oh, don't be so dramatic. I'll even throw in some professional advice. Free of charge." He glanced around, before pointing on a piled-up chain mail shirt.

"That chain shirt, right there, is actually enchanted with an anti-rusting spell. Its only a minor effect, but it should allow you to sell it for three times what you are charging."

The merchant blinked at him suspiciously. "Are you sure? How do you know?"

"Let's just say I have an eye for these things." He said while tapping his temple with a finger.

"I see. Very well, you have my thanks." The merchant replied with a knowing smile.

Mike turned and raised a hand acknowledgement. "Pleasure doing business with you."

[And thanks for giving me the opportunity to level up my skills.]

He had already spent much of the morning touring the market, inspecting everything of interest he'd seen. His Inspect and Basic Haggling had risen to Rank 5 and Rank 3 respectively.

[I wonder what the tier-upped version of Inspect is going to be. Hopefully, I can use on other people. I'm getting a little tired of not being able to gauge how dangerous some individuals are. That's like the trademark ability of every protagonist ever.]

He wandered the district aimlessly, looking for lunch. He ended up getting a kind of spicy chicken salad like substance wrapped in something resembling a tortilla. Overall it was pretty good.

[Now that I think about it, I've been in a lot of dangerous situations, but I've never gained any kind of sensory skill. In s the MC always ends up with some kind of presence detection or hostili-]

He suddenly noticed that someone in his near vicinity was directing hostility towards him. After looking at his [Status], he couldn't help but wonder if the System had a sense of humor.

- Detect Hostile Intent (Tier 2, Rank 1) -

Users can perceive the hostile intentions focused on them, within a certain range. In order to be considered hostile, the individual in question must wish to harm the the user in some form, or cause some substantive loss to the user. Range and precision of the effect is determined by both the user's Willpower and skill rank.

Incredulous, he also noted that his Basic Poison Resistance had not only ranked up, but improved to Intermediate Poison Resistance.

- Intermediate Poison Resistance (Tier 2, Rank 1) -

Frequent exposure to harmful substances has increased you body's ability to resist them. Provides moderate resistance to poison and poison based effects.

[HOW?! HOW FAR WILL YOU GO TO PREVENT ME FROM GETTING A GOOD DRINK, SYSTEM?!]

With some difficulty he managed to calm himself. He tried to ignore the cautious stares from passerbys, like he was acting insane, as they walked around him.

After lowering the fist he had been shaking at the sky angrily, he face palmed. [This is starting to get ridiculous. Anyway, I guess I should figure out what is causing this skill to act up.]

Walking through the market, he tried to remain casual, as he scanned his surroundings. Evidently he needed to improve the skill a bit, because he could only get a rough idea where the hostility was coming from. It seemed like there might be a handful of possible enemies, but he couldn't be sure.

[I need to lure them out. If they are actually hostile, they should try to attack me when I am alone.]

Mike chose a likely looking alley and waited. It wasn't long before he was surrounded by thugs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I'm so going to kill that lucky bastard." Julia said through gritted teeth, ears pressed flat against her head. She had been trying to separate the newbie adventurer from his new cloak for nearly two hours at this point, but every attempt had failed.

At first she had tried to grab it in passing through simple sleight of hand. An ordinary pickpocket would have had trouble removing a cloak from the newbie without him noticing, but Julia was was an expert.

However, no matter how many times she tried, he always seemed to avoid it at the last second. Sometimes he would turn into a store at exactly the right moment, others he would bend down to pick something up or stop suddenly as a fast moving pedestrian cut him off.

In one case, Julia almost had her hands on the cloak when a nearby window opened and dumped an entire bucket of water on her. That had really pissed her off. So much so, she resorted to one of her least favorite tactics, in an effort to subdue the young adventurer without a fight.

After narrowly missing with several darts covered in a potent sedative, one of which ended up in the hindquarters of a particularly large horse which had subsequently caused a traffic jam, Julia was ready to tear the adventure apart with her bare hands.

[I don't care if I'm seen! I won't be satisfied until I beat that cretin black and blue!]

It was at this point that their quarry stopped in the middle of the road. A look of pure and unadulterated rage appeared on his features, and Julia was sure that he had noticed her underlings.

Strangely the idea of it caused her heart to beat quicker. Fear shooting icy fingers up her spine.

When the strange adventurer suddenly started shaking his fist at the sky, she relaxed.

[This guy is crazy. That should make the next bit easier.]

The newbie in question soon entered a nearby alley. Julia new this part of town very well, and she recognized that the foolish adventurer had entered into an isolated section of district.

With a simple hand signal, she motioned her followers to surround the exit.

She smiled. [Now I have you. Its unfortunate, but I'm going to have to take your life as well as your cloak.]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mike watched the two groups of thugs closed both exits of the deserted alley. There were two behind him and three in front of him. If he hadn't already fought against much more terrifying odds, he would have been unsettled by being surrounded.

A small, slender female thug wearing a hood and mask stepped forward. "Its your unlucky day, newbie. We've been after you all day, and if you had just let us take your Salamander's Cloak we could have solved this the easy way, but no, you had to be obstinate. Drop your weapons and the cloak, and I might just let you live."

Mike was confused. "So you've been trying to steal from me all day? I hadn't even noticed."

The leader of the thugs started shaking slightly at that. Mike wasn't sure because of the mask, but he suspected that she was shaking with rage.

She let out an inarticulate scream of fury."AAAAAAHHHH!!" She said while drawing a dagger and charging forward. "GET THE BASTARD!!"

All five of the thugs charged at the same time. Mike briefly debated using magic, but felt that this would be an excellent time to work on some his more nonlethal skills.

[Lets see how effective I can be in not killing them. Anyway, if I mess up, then it would be legitimate self-defense.]

He cracked his knuckles and got to work.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Julia was charging the youth, dagger at the ready. As the fastest in the group, she would be the first to reach their target by a large margin.

She knew that he was an adventurer, and therefore had some combat experience, but she felt confident that her group could take him down with ease. At least until he started moving.

The newbie seemed to disappear, and a massive impact to her stomach knocked the wind out of her and blew her back several meters. Julia felt like she was hit by a horse.

After rolling to stop, she painfully tried to get to her feet.

[What in the hells is happening?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- Basic Unarmed Fighting (Tier 1, Rank1) -

Whether learned in a street fight or at the knee of an experienced master, all unarmed fighters start with the basics. The most rudimentary skill of the Unarmed Fighting tree. Provides users with fundamental understanding of using their own bodies in combat.

Mike grinned after watching the irritating thug leader being blown away. He had merely been trying to control his strength and deal a submission blow, but he picked up a new skill in the process.

He turned to look at the thugs gathered around, obviously terrified by the his sudden display of strength and speed.

Mike cracked his knuckles again. "Alright, its time you guys learned to pick your targets a little better."